Friday 8 July 2011

THE DEATH OF SL MESH

UPDATE:
Mesh has the power to transform Secondlife into something awesome and unbelievably beautiful but right now it's being crippled and choked by mesh PE.


A poem by Lilith Heart
I LOVE MESH
I am mesh’s number 1 fan
Give me an M …. Give me an E … Give me an S …. Give an H …. What have you got …. MESH !!!!! YAAAAAY MESH !! Go mesh Go !!
But …

For me mesh is already DEAD with the current PE
For me a prim count of 500 is no good for a pretty mesh tree
How I hate the horrid sculpty
I really want to make a gorgeous mesh tree

Nobody will pay money for a mesh tree that’s 500 PE
Nobody will want my beautiful mesh tree
OH NO! Mesh is dead for me
All because of the silly PE

Only 3 sculpty prims equal my 500 PE mesh tree
This seems very unfair to me
I’m begging on hands and knees, make mesh work for creators like me
And get rid of that cruel and restrictive PE

No need for physics on my lovely mesh tree
Damn the physics it’s killed mesh for me
All because I make a giant mesh tree!
Oh lovely mesh tree, why are you 500 PE ?

Oh Woe is me …. Curse the damn PE
Oh mesh I love you … you make a beautiful tree …
Much better than any sculpty !
Oh woe is me … curse the damn PE

-------------------------------------

The current mesh PE calculations are so expensive, prim-wise … MESH IS A NON STARTER… DOA .. Dead on Arrival ! Mesh as is, is only applicable for the avatar clothing and accessories market, which have no prim limits …. Crazy stuff !

For all land based products, all landscaping items …. plants trees, furniture, houses … anything you rez on land that has a prim limit … SL mesh is basically redundant, because it’s too expensive prim-wise compared to scultpy equivalents. We need mesh most for the LANDSCAPE and ARCHITECTURE of Secondlife, for the grid itself. How the world looks is most important for the next phase of SL.

Unfortunately mesh is not going to make any difference to how the world looks, as we won’t be able to use it in the world, on the land. We will only be able to wear mesh items because the PE for landscape items is too restrictive and expensive prim wise. MESH IS TOO PRIMMY FOR LAND PRODUCTS

The look of the Secondlife world is often compared to the latest 3D games and it doesn’t compare well. .We desperately need mesh to improve the look of the SL world to excite and retain new users.

Please, please Mesh Lindens …. take another look at mesh PE and find a more usable solution so we can all help to make the SL World more beautiful.

Summary .... PE outrageously high ..... mesh is dead … DOA ….. Dead on Arrival  :-(

Monday 4 July 2011

THE WONDER OF SECOND LIFE - VIRTUAL MONEY = REAL FOOD

In the summer slump, amongst the weary and burnt out creators, fatigued and confused residents .... amazing wondrous things are happening in Second Life.

On Sunday 26th June we hosted a benefit concert at The Villa Bar on Heart 2 in aid of  'Live and Learn in Kenya's ..... Feed a Smile Project'. Live and Learn in Kenya .... Feed A Smile Project

Tukso Okey provided the most amazing 2 hour rock/blues type 'set' in his usual unique and incredible style.

During the two hour concert 100600 L$  ( approx 400 USD) was donated by the wonderful residents of Secondlife ..... who are far sighted, upwardly mobile, early adopting, brave pioneers of this strange, collective digital dream world.

The medium is virtual but the money raised is REAL and paid for real food ...... approx 1000 meals which included sweets, bananas and milk as a special treat ! 

A big thank you to Brique Topaz (Feed A Smile contact in SL), Tukso and to all our guests who made it happen.   See photos below.

See above the real food generated by Second Life's virtual currency and it's wonderful residents

Click photo to enlarge
The above photo includes a blackboard drawing created by one of the artistic and talented children in the Feed a Smile Project in Kenya. It shows a beautiful chalk interpretation of Dolly, Tukso and myself. I was particularly struck by the artists rendition of our dresses and bangles and hair, which really captured the essence of our current SL fashion look !  Fantastic ! 

Dolly and I were actually completely overwhelmed by the drawing .... what can one say.

Here are some pictures of the event taking place at The Villa Bar in Second Life. We peaked at 62 guests and then the sim crashed .... which was a real shame as Dolly had optimistically set the agent limit for the sim to 100 ! 



We crashed the sim at ONLY 62 guests .... such a shame .... as I'm sure we could have gathered 100 or more guests if the technology hadn't failed us. It's very distressing for the sim to crash in the middle of an event.

The momentum and flow of the event was seriously disrupted by the sim crash. but luckily many of the guests were patient and waited on the edges of the sim until The Villa Bar venue re-appeared about 5-6 mins later.

See pic of The Arcachon crew waiting for the Villa Bar @ Heart to re-appear
http://www.flickr.com/photos/evekazan/5874105815/in/photostream/

Why, Why Linden Lab .... is there not a 'Pay As you Go', 24 hour, EVENTS POWER SERVER option for larger get togethers and important gatherings, such as Live Music, Charity Events, anything that requires a professional level of stability during an event ?

It takes a lot of time and effort for event organisers to arange everything ' just so' and to create momentum and a buzz. It's a terrible shame to lose all that time, effort and energy and crash the sim with ONLY 62 avatars present. More is surely possible !

Intel Releasing Code for Putting 1000s of Avatars on a Single OpenSim Region This Month (With Cloud Deployment Too)!

Clearly, more IS possible !

Second Life is a compelling and unique experience as is. But if we could get hundreds of people to individual events .... parties, fund raisers, lectures, 'do's' of all kinds and especially Live Music events ..... that would be truly amazing and be the birth of a new phase of the virtual, shared experience.

There are so many people spending their real lives organising virtual events in Second Life it would be  prudent if Linden Lab recognised this activity and offered some kind of  'Pay As you Go', 24 hour, EVENTS POWER SERVER' option, so that organisers can guarantee a more stable event experience.